Flicker
by ploThief
Summary: Sasuke doesn't want to admit it, but there is something about the dobe that bothers him. Little things here and there, and he's not the only one noticing. Problem is that the more clear things become, the more shrouded Naruto gets...


**Summary:** Sasuke doesn't want to admit it, but there is something about the dobe that bothers him. Little things here and there, and he's not the only one noticing. Problem is that the more clear things become, the more shrouded Naruto gets...

 **A/N:** Yeah, yeah I'm start yet another Naruto story. Just trying to get my foot in the doorway and all (so please don't try to crush it I kind of need it) and get this idea that knocking in my head. It's probably not going to make sense but in my head it seems freakin' fantastic so why the hell not? This is Fanfiction after all.

 **Disclaimer:** Masashi Kishimoto is the owner of the Naruto franchise (characters, setting, etc.)

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 **- FL _I_ CK _E_ R-**

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How do you share a tale that should not exist, or is unfathomable to understand? The facts should be laid out firsts, but most stories make sense when they start at the beginning.

Fact: Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki had a baby.

His name was Naruto. He was a tiny thing, a spitting image of his father except with three little lines across each chubby cheek. They looked a lot like whiskers, a perfect identification for what he carried.

Fact: Naruto Uzumaki is a Jinchuriki

He contains the fearsome Kyūbi no Yōko, which attacked his village on the day of his birth. His mother and father died that day as well. They died protecting him during the sealing ritual, in which his father sold his soul to the Shinigami for its help. Perhaps being touched by death lead this boy to this outcome, but that is only a theory. After much arguing between the council and Hokage, Naruto was placed in an orphanage.

Fact: At that time, majority of the village hailed negative feelings to the child.

They did not know he was their beloved Fourth Hokage's son and, clouded by grief from losing loved ones or something cherished, blamed the boy for the attack, since it is he who houses the one that was responsible. Others feared the power he housed, anticipating that one day it might rise again and finish what it started. Regardless, the little boy suffered from these feelings, in various forms and various ways. Perhaps the saddest part was that he did not know why he was the scapegoat, thanks to a certain rule with a threatening penalty, and began to assume it was something horrible he did but could not remember. With a good heart he decided to make it up to these same people somehow, but for now give them a reason to hate him (and release his own pent up emotions in a fun way). Before long he became a pranking pariah of the village, but he wasn't the master of getaways just yet. Unfortunately, that took time and experience, which in his early pranking career he had little of.

Fact: When completing yet another successful prank, Naruto U was again unsuccessful in getting away. This one incident changed his entire life.

The sun was setting and after climbing a makeshift ladder he had been running on the rooftops like he had seen some ninjas do. The victims of his prank were on the streets below, swearing profoundly and stumbling to find him. Laughing at their feeble chase, the almost five year old jumped to the other rooftop, only to realize too late that it was too big of a gap.

Naruto hit the edge of a garbage bin before slamming into the alleyway ground below. He was dazed and in pain, having broken a few bones and bruising much of his body. The breath was knocked out of him and he could only watch as his pursuers caught sight of him. They surrounded the blonde, panting hard and filling his lungs with the stench of alcohol. First it was only incomprehensible screaming and insults, but those grew to kicking and beatings that left him choking on the taste of copper and knowing nothing but pain. He couldn't hear over the ringing in his ears, but even through his swollen and bleeding vision he barely see them pick him up before being stuffed into something scratchy and dark. After that...

 _He didn't want to die. **He wanted to live.**_

Fact: By sunrise Naruto Uzumaki woke up and walked back to the orphanage for breakfast, unaware of the events that happened that night.

He was unaware of what was left behind as well.


End file.
